More than a dozen years ago, I joined with Jeff Cohen (founder of the media watch group FAIR) to establish the P.U.-litzer Prizes. Ever since then, the annual awards have given recognition to the stinkiest media performances of the year.

When I was a kid, I read the funnies in the Sunday papers with a devotion that bordered on the religious. I poured over those colorful panels like some biblical scholar searching for revelations in a newly discovered parchment scroll. Dick Tracy was one of my favorites.

Local political blogger Joe Monahan (www.joemonahan.com) launched the New Year with a rapturous love note to Garrey Carruthers, former Republican governor and current dean of the New Mexico State University College of Business. Monahan is beside himself with enthusiasm over Carruthers' "bold, blunt assessment" and "dose of reality" pinning New Mexico's current and future problems directly to the state's Latino and Native American citizens. (Ever notice how right-leaners reserve terms like "bold, blunt assessment" and "dose of reality" for comments dissing minorities, women, liberals or gays?)

New national and state initiatives demonstrate a commitment to finding the answer

By Giovanna Rossi

Already through two cups of tea, and my friend was still telling me about her last visit to the doctor. The story took so long to tell, not because she is long-winded, but because there were so many different things that happened in her tale of a day-long doctor visit and subsequent day-long trip to a specialist. Still sipping my sweet Yogi tea, I became worried about insurance coverage for such complicated consultation, but she looked at me blankly, “Health insurance? I'm self-employed, I can't afford it.”

Dateline: Germany—Two armed robbers made off with considerably less than expected when they held up a money courier and made off with his first aid kit. The two unidentified bandits pursued the courier at high speed before shooting at his vehicle and forcing him to stop on a road in Gronau. After forcing the vehicle's trunk open, one of the crooks snatched a case and fled. Instead of taking the suitcase full of money, however, the confused bandit grabbed the car's roadside first aid kit. “If there was an award for the dumbest crooks, they would certainly be in the running,” police spokesperson Johann Steinlitz told reporters. The courier was not harmed in the incident and police are taking the investigation seriously, even though the crime failed miserably.

Here is a memo to our fearless top sheriff, the always-looking-for-a-camera Darren White. The next time you feel the need to jump on the "where are all the sex offenders living" and “how can I milk that story another time for just a little more juice” you might want to consider putting your sheriffs on a case a little more worthwhile. Perhaps stationing them at sites where dangerous explosives are being held with only the security of a kids' playground. Maybe that might be for the public good more than the Halloween-night hassling drive-bys of sex offenders. And you might work on the training for officers on suicide calls. Just a thought.